East Asian Studies

Eleanor J. Hogan received her Ph.D. in Japanese and Comparative Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She was the first tenure-track hire in Japanese Studies, arriving in the fall of 1999. Over the past two decades,  she has helped guide the program from a specialized, individual major through the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies to the East Asian Studies Department with majors and minors in Chinese Studies and Japanese Studies. Hogan teaches all levels of Japanese language, as well as literature, and popular culture. Her first year seminar, “An Atomic Lizard, A Robot Boy, Pocket Monsters and Some Very Cute Kitties: Japanese Popular Culture Goes Global,” will be taught again in Fall 2019.  

Hogan’s research interests include the portrayal of women in modern Japanese literature; world science fiction; extraordinary fiction; Japanese videogames and their relation to actual history and literature; and the representation of literary and culture figures in cosplay and parades and festivals. She has attended the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya (2014) and witnessed the impressive Jidai Matsuri (Historial Festival) in Kyoto (2016) and the lengthy, four-hour parades in Nagoya (2016) which include battle reenactments from the 17th century. Recently she has worked with seniors and research students projects related to literary translation, gender identity, the representation of transgendered figures in modern culture.

Professor Hogan stays in touch with many of the Japanese Studies graduates. Some have continued their studies of Japanese at the MA and Ph.D. level, others have or are currently teaching or working in Japan, at the Japanese embassy, and for non-profit exchange programs in Japan and the United States.